SACRAMENTO >> California is crafting new public school report cards this week, expected to be adopted when the State Board of Education meets today and Friday in Sacramento.

Gone forever will be the three-digit API scores that measured schools’ worth. The new the proposed school evaluations, backers tout, will be broad and nuanced, capturing more of what schools accomplish. Critics call them an avalanche of confusing numbers and jargon that downplay test scores, obscure schools’ failings and make it impossible for parents to tell how well schools are serving their kids.

For 14 years, Californians could get a clear — albeit limited — snapshot of how local schools and school districts were performing, with the state issuing a single three-digit number representing achievement. The Academic Performance Index, or API, pegged schools’ worth to results of math, English and science tests, graduation rates and high school exit-exam passage.

Parents anxiously anticipated the annual release of API scores, and Realtors loved them as a marketing tool in high-performing neighborhoods. But teachers, administrators and unions complained that a single number was too simplistic, encouraged test-gaming and punished schools populated by disadvantaged children.

The state suspended the API after the 2012-13 school year.

Now the state Board of Education is poised to swing dramatically in the opposite direction.

The California Department of Education, in reporting to the State Board, wrote that “The new accountability system provides a more complete picture of what contributes to a positive educational experience for students.”

But that picture provides both too much information, while neglecting critical numbers, critics say. In an unusual move, the state Legislature unanimously passed a bill by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, directing the state board to adopt an accountability system that conforms with federal law and more closely focuses on pulling up struggling students.

A letter signed by leaders of 300 organizations, including business, education reform and civil rights groups, urges Gov. Jerry Brown to sign that bill, AB 2548.

“We need to make sure that all students are doing well,” Weber said, “and that those who are falling behind are not lost in the numbers of those doing well.”

The groups maintain that California’s report card should be weighted more heavily with academic progress to align with federal standards — so that the era of dual accountability systems can end — and that a transparent school grading system should be put in place soon.

The state’s proposed multicolored matrix is mind-boggling, they say. “It’s so far from single index like API,” said Matt Hammer, executive director of San Jose-based Innovate Public Schools, which advocates for improving education for low-income students. “There’s just no way parents are going to be using it, because it’s completely indecipherable and you need an hour figure it out.”

What parents want, he said, is for Sacramento to provide a clear answer: “Is my neighborhood school on track?”

But Mike Kirst, State Board of Education president, said that “criticisms that the system will be too complicated to understand are premature.” The board has sought feedback from parents and educators to make the report cards understandable, he said.

Advocates say that focusing on students at the bottom is critical because among the 50 states, California has the 49th largest gap between low-income students and their better-off peers, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office budget report issued this year.

“If a kid is further behind, they need to improve faster,” said Samantha Dobbins Tran, senior managing director of Children Now, an Oakland-based child advocacy group. But looking at the state’s standardized test results released last month, she noted, the reverse it happening. “Our most vulnerable kids are improving slower.”

But supporters say the State Board is on the right track. “Overall, we’re very happy with the direction,” said Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union. Publishing various metrics like graduation and suspension rates, he said, provides a better picture of a school’s progress. “Any time you look at any child or group you want to use indicators that are giving you a complete picture.”

Heins is especially glad to bury API scores. “It’s really so misleading to have that single number,” he said. “In California, we are really on the doorstep of developing something that could be groundbreaking.”